Super Mario 64 DS

Surprise! A Mario game ends up a launch title for the company's new system. But is it the "must have" game of the year?

But we can't forget the actual technical side of Super Mario 64 DS, and at the very least, the developers put on a great first-generation show during the main adventure by demonstrating the DS' 3D and digital audio effects. Even without texture filtering, the Nintendo DS version looks night and day better than the N64 version with much more detailed textures as well as higher polygon models for the characters and level designs. The refresh never strays from its 30 frames-per-second rate, though there are occasional bouts of scenery pop-in distant items. But the system can definitely hold its own with some great effects, like transparencies and the familiar "water ripple" technique when leaping through a painting. The developers even throw a cute little utility in the beginning that shows a cool "vector editor" where players can tweak and stretch their hand drawn artwork.

Audio has also been improved in the conversion. Along with converting and tweaking the original's fun and peppy musical sountrack, Nintendo rerecorded a lot of the original sound assets, including the opening speech by Princess Peach and Mario's "Wahoos" and "Lets-a-go." The new speech samples come off slightly compressed when played back, but the outstanding use of the system's stereo sound more than makes up for it. The developers have put in some phasing effects to simulate a "surround" effect using the two speakers on the system, and some newly developed levels where players must "listen" for an enemy's location really show off the stereo capabilities.

The Verdict

Super Mario 64 DS is, without a doubt, the most "complete" of the dozen launch titles in the Nintendo DS line-up. Not only is the game a great port of a fantastic game design, the development team push the system capabilities enough to show the benefits of the system. But at the same time, the choice of porting over an analog-heavy game design such as Super Mario 64 also points out its glaring omission. The fix, a touch-screen Analog Stick emulator, is a good idea that's entirely functional...if just a little flawed due to the lack of physical restraints.

The Nintendo DS version does everything it sets out to do: demonstrate nearly every one of the new system's capabilities. Super Mario 64 DS shows off that the system's significantly more powerful than the Nintendo 64 in both graphics and audio, at least as a first-generation title. It also pushes the system's touch screen functions, though many of these additions feel like supplements than they are important, integral elements to the game design. But they certainly are welcome, and definitely increase the value of an already great title.

At the very least, you can depend on at least one game in the system's launch line-up to bring hours, days, and weeks of great fun on the new hardware, even if it may not exactly be the system seller people are expecting out of the Nintendo DS' launch window. While I would have loved to experience a brand new Super Mario game that incorporated and integrated the system's capabilities, it's at least great to experience a well-produced and expanded version of a tried-and-true formula.